Heavy Gear Assault Stomps Into Early Access

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Correction: An earlier version of this post said the game was free-to-play, following outdated information on the game’s site. No, it won’t be free-to-play, but it will sell instant unlocks for folks who want them.

When Activision lost the BattleTech rights to make MechWarrior games, they turned to a Heavy Gear license to fill the ‘stompy murderbot combat’ hole in their lineup. Well, MechWarrior games returned in the ongoing nostalg-o-rama, and Heavy Gear’s back too.

Buying in now for $40 (£26) upwards will get you early access, instant unlocks for two mechs and some weapons, and in-game cash to buy some more. More expensive packages offer more.

The game’s not simply MechWarrior, mind. Heavy Gear does MechWarrior-ish things, but gears are a lot zippier than mechs.

Heavy Gear Assault is due to properly launch on Windows and Linux in 2016. Here’s an “early alpha” gameplay trailer from December 2014; I don’t know why they don’t have a proper new trailer showing off how the game looks now:

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Tracked feet are on the way. All of the Gears in the game right now have wheels in lore. We have a different foot with tracks for the tracked Gears. Gears can jump and have jets in Heavy Gear. The video linked on this article is about 6 months old before we added limitations to jumping.

I’ve been a massive fan of the Heavy Gear setting and its respective games since the video games came out, and I discovered there was a whole world behind it. The ‘realistic mech’ approach of the setting caught my eye, and eventually my heart. (For those uninitiated, the idea is that unlike, eg, Mechwarrior, Gears are no match for a tank in a frontal battle – but they rely on their mobility in their rugged home planet to get the edge as a form of super-size infantry. It’s a clever conceit, and results in gears clambering around, lying prone, and acting as artillery spotters a whole lot.) I’ve followed every game and release they’ve come up with for years, even the slightly wonky ones.

Hi vamman, sorry, I haven’t received any e-mail you’ve sent me yet. Apologies for the confusion but I don’t see how your ‘free-to-choose’ isn’t free-to-play: link to heavygear.com

“Heavy Gear Assault players can choose to download a minimum product and start playing for free immediately or purchase premium content and components using either points earned in-game or through a micropayment system.”

I was about to get all excited about this, especially considering the (to me, at least) disappointment that is MechWarrior Online, but then I reached the bit about how the game’s going to follow the free to play model and my heart sank. I understand that that’s just the way the cookie crumbles these days but I can’t help but feeling saddened by it.

“Do the comments about the buy-in price being for X mechs and Y in-game currency stand?” – The costs listed in the store now will be the costs at time of launch and after as far as has been stated. There are no plans to raise prices or lower them on the current game packs.

“Which is to say, is there a grind to unlock your stuff, and is there a limit to how long/many rounds you can play at a time before needing to wait for timers and/or more ‘money’ spent?” – At launch to earn in game money you will have to work the economy and you will have to earn money through various means like winning competitions or battles and by producing and selling items from the blue prints you own, like crafting in other games. There will be no forced wait timer limiting the amount of matches you get and you will be able to challenge players.

“Once you buy the game, is it possible/useful to spend additional money for in-game acceleration of play-time or unlock availability?” – Only in the fact that you may want to buy a weapon and it’s blue prints quicker with real money but it’s not necessary. Every store item is available to purchase when the game launches. The only items that won’t be in store are special rewards for doing well in the tournaments like a cool decal or skin that shows you came in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in a tournament.

“esports tend to let people practice as long as they want in back-to-back games. Free-to-play style games tend to limit play without expenditure.” – You’ll be able to play as much as you want and even jump into private servers with others who have the Server Pack.

Well, thank you for the explanation. Unfortunately, the whole pay-to-do-stuff-faster inside a game is one of the biggest hallmarks of a free-to-play short of actively exclusive content.

So this pretty much sounds like a moderately less obnoxious free-to-play game, but that you have to pay real money to sign up for at all; the worst of both worlds, and probably one you’re stuck with given you’ve got preorders and kickstarter pledges that promised as much. :/

I think it’s a matter of how you personally want to look at it. You’re taking a very cynical view of funding games this way, which I get considering how funding gaming in general has been done for such a long time. People have gotten screwed for investing heavily in a title only to be let down or worse treated like a castaway by a the dev company. I try not to hold these issue against a company until they are guilty of doing it themselves. I look at it as you buy the game and can get everything that’s in game with in game money as a way to level up equipment and assets and not micro-transact you to death, or you can support the game financially by buying some stuff for cash. It’s as simple as the Devs have done a great job and I’ve enjoyed playing the game so I think I’ll go spend some money with them. Kind of like tipping at a restaurant. If you enjoyed the meal and service you’d tip the staff so if you enjoyed the game and the support why not tip the staff for it.

I have certain games I still play that I won’t ever spend a dime on just because of their past history and dealings with them.

Man, I absolutely loved the original Heavy Gear. Glorious FMV the story and then ongoing campaign modes were so much fun. Full disclosure, I played it with cheats but there was something amazing about just having a stealthy speedy build and only a snub cannon, sniping robo legs off from miles away.

I tried Heavy Gear 2 afterwards but didn’t like the control scheme for some reason and gave up very early.

Those screenshots are very high-res and show a lot of detail, but they rather make this look like the HD remake of something from the ’90s.

This isn’t really your fault, note, it’s that the design of the gears themselves and their world (which is largely desert/badlands or temperate wilderness, as I recall), which is itself deeply ’90s, because it’s from the early ’90s, and your designs are very true to those. Thus without any re-design or flair, you’re going to look ’90s. Especially as the terrain engine you’re using looks rather old-fashioned (just compare your sand – orange and with over-the-top extremely regular bump-mapping – in those screenshots to sand in modern games, which tends to y’know, actually look like sand).

Battlemechs manage to look more timeless because they are constantly re-designed, in minor or major ways (and not always willingly!), and the recent game did give them flair and detail that just wasn’t there in the originals. I think you could stand to move away from the “single colour” look for your gearss, going instead for camo and “beat-up” looks. I mean, a blue gear on an orange field looks pretty silly – especially as gears are agile little things which can take cover, do scout and hide and so on, unlike mechs.

I guess what I’m saying is that is that if you want to look modern, instead of merely being true to the decent cartoonish art of ’90s HG, maybe update it a bit more – with semi-realistic things like gears, you should be more Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and slightly less anime.

I’ve been in Heavy Gear Assault since last year when the Alpha dropped and I’ve enjoyed every moment of the game and watching it develop. Would I recommend the game to everyone? No because some people can’t handle playing games as they are being developed, but I would say keep an eye on it and wait till launch in late 2016 if you don’t like playing games as they developed as I do. If you like backing early and participating in the development of games then HGA is perfect! The dev team at MekTek is among the best when it comes to participating with their community and they actually do listen to us. No they won’t take every idea or suggestion but they don’t treat us like castaways either. I bought the top game pack for $99.95 over a year ago and I feel that I’ve gotten my moneys worth out of the game already. I’m planning to buy two more game packs for my sons to the tune of $140 as they want the Southern packs and honestly I’m eager to spend more money with MekTek. Heavy Gear Assault has been a fun game with a great dev team that’s had to fight for every inch they’ve earned and they’ve had more speed bumps along the way then any dev team should. MekTek has always been good to its supporters ever since the beginning and I support the team more now then ever. I love this game and I’m looking forward to the future of MekTek and Heavy Gear Assault.

I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around the Heavy Gear RPG mechanics. It’s a system where you’ve the freedom to design truly ridiculous behemoths, the only restriction being that the cost makes them infeasible to develop, and yet those same behemoths can be toppled by a Red Ryder BB gun if you flub your rolls.

It’s the same in Table Top BattleTech. Build a massive 100 tom Atlas only to get one shotted in the cockpit the first engagement of the battle. Btw for reference BattleTech uses Mechs from 20 tons to 100 tons while Heavy Gear is 5 tons to like 20 tons.

As someone who played both extensively on the TT, I think you’re being disingenuous.

It is vaguely possible that an Atlas or the like might get one-shot, if hit by a powerful weapon, directly in a single, unlikely-to-be-hit location (1 in 36 chance, as I recall, possibly even impossible with modifiers, only real way to make it higher was to try Death from Above). Small or medium weapons hitting it may well not destroy it, too (certainly most won’t, actually). In the years I played Battletech we certainly saw very few head hits take down big mechs, and virtually all as a result of Death from Above (which often left the other mech crippled or in an extremely awkward position).

Whereas with Heavy Gear, whilst I don’t remember the exact rules and would have to dig them out, I do remember that gears were getting one-shot all over the place – regardless of their size, too. That’s not necessarily a bad thing (it made games faster and often more about cover/careful-ness), but it’s a clear difference.

I think you’re being to picky. The point was I’ve been one shotted in TT Battletech just to point out it happens in other games as well and that I’ve felt that pain. It wasn’t to start a debate over it.

It’s like most games. You buy it, you then play it :)
If you’re just looking for the single player stuff, that’ll come later. If you’re interested in multiplayer, you can do that now. Eventually, there’ll be subscription based services (ladders, persistent stats, levelling) but there will also be private, servers run by players, that anyone will be able to play on, assuming you purchased the game.

I’ve been playing Hawken recently, after ragequitting MechWarrior Online completely. One thing that I loved in Hawken, besides its f2p model, was the perfect balance between tactics and frenetic shooting mechanics. And also, respawn after you die, that Counter Strike..Ish gameplay style of MWO was the reason why I quit.

You sure it you didn’t quit because of the wheel of waiting? I get it, I play MWO and I understand the frustrations. Currently there are respawns in the game for testing reasons but eventually that will go away except in special instances but I can’t tell you if there will be a 5-10 minute wheel of waiting or a 1-5 minute wheel of waiting at any point in the games development. The goal will be to get you a match as fast as possible and if you challenge someone it should happen faster. Say you and a buddy want to see who’s best you’ll be able to challenge him and drop right away.

As for how the game will play it should be faster paced then MWO and it already requires skill to place shots with ballistic drop and having to stay on target while avoiding being shot. A stopped gear is a dead gear no matter what class it is.

Anyone got a working link to that free MW4 redo?
These guys have apparently stopped hosting / supporting it since they started this project but I hear tell that its still available out there somewhere, my google-fu has proved insufficient to find it.

Check the link maybe this is what you’re looking for? link to heavygear.com It’s included with purchase of a game pack upon completion of the Singe Player module and they plan more Campaigns if the Single player is well received.

“Correction: An earlier version of this post said the game was free-to-play, following outdated information on the game’s site. No, it won’t be free-to-play, but it will sell instant unlocks for folks who want them.”

It’s a game in early development and compared to other titles looks good to me and gets better looking each time they update more cool textures into the game. Look at this link link to facebook.com to see some comparison shots I did between HGA and MWO.